mental health

Findings reveal people with mental health conditions waiting too long for workplace support

Some people with mental health conditions could be waiting for over a year for employers to put in place much needed workplace adjustments, new findings published today show.

The findings come from The Great Big Workplace Adjustments Survey 2019, a comprehensive study of disability and long-term conditions conducted by Business Disability Forum and based on the views of over 1,200 employees and managers working with adjustments.

The new findings announced today relate specifically to the experiences of the 385 respondents with mental health conditions and/or workplace stress who took part in the study.

A local charity has been praised for its innovative day services by a leading international authority on mental health on a recent visit to the UK.

Blyth Star Enterprises welcomed a visit from Norway-based senior clinical manager and published scholar, Arne Thomassen, to its headquarters in Blyth, Northumberland, where he was taken on a tour of the charity’s extensive services by chief executive, Gordon Moore.

Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) is calling on the government to prescribe volunteering as a method of tackling loneliness and mental health issues.

Following a survey of 1,629 volunteers, RDA is marking its 50thanniversary by launching a report on the impact of volunteering on health and wellbeing and the benefits for both RDA participants and the volunteers.

The report was presented at a Parliamentary Reception in Westminster, hosted by MP for Cheltenham, Alex Chalk on February 6, with the charity calling on the government to recognise the dual benefit that volunteering brings.

Peter Wright is a personal development and performance coaching specialist based in North Devon in South West England. He is also Master Hypnotherapist, Master Practitioner of NLP, Cricket and Rugby Coach and a lifelong walking enthusiast. He runs walking retreats for groups and ‘walk and coach’ sessions for individuals that give opportunity for guided ‘me time’ enabling mental and physical renewal. Here he discusses the healing power of walking for mental health.

We always think that we can control our bodies with our minds, and the fact is, that when our mind is going haywire, the body blazes those haywire things into feelings and makes us feel uncomfortable and stressed out. Once this happens, we are unable to invoke the body to help the mind because we're all one system.

According to HSE, around 15.4 million working days are lost due to work related stress in 2017 with 595,000 British workers suffering from Mental Health issues such as depression and anxiety over the last 12 months with 239,000 new cases. Further research by the CIPD and SimplyHealth found presenteeism had more than tripled from 26 per cent in 2010 to 86 per cent in 2018 and was associated with rising stress levels. Following these recent statistics, Instant Offices shows what the early signs of suffering burnout and how to effectively avoid hitting rock bottom.

Systems are necessary. Everything we do has some sort of structure. It’s the rigidity built into systems that gets me going. Surely flexibility is optimal? So why are we faced daily with the inflexibility of systems imposed, it would seem, just to make us think more mechanically? Is this what Andy Warhol meant when he famously said he wanted to be a machine? But that was back in the mid ‘70s— an analogue era with no computer algorithms to curtail his creative flow.

Ask twice, people urged, as new research shows over three quarters of people in the North West would say they are ‘fine’ even if struggling with a mental health problem

New research released by the mental health anti-stigma campaign, Time to Change, reveals that when asked, 81% of people in the North West would tell friends and family we are ‘fine’, even if struggling with a mental health problem.

When asked why, responses suggest we doubt whether people really want to hear the honest answer.

The top concerns in the North West were:

Just because people ask how you are, doesn’t mean they really want to know (54%)

Citizens Advice research reveals limited, inconsistent and patchy support for people with mental health problems. Energy and telecoms were rated the worst sectors for customer service and additional support, while water companies were seen most favourably.

The number of people with mental health problems seeking advice from Citizens Advice on utilities and communications issues has soared, at double the pace of people overall.

Citizens Advice found:

People with mental health problems are 4 times more likely to have gone without essentials, such as food, to pay their landline, broadband or mobile phone bill

13% of those with mental health problems have had their landline, broadband or mobile service disconnected once or more due to lack of payment

A young man with learning difficulties is enjoying a new lease of life after moving to a supported living service, Sail Close near King’s Lynn.

Since Mark Lowman - who is 27 and has learning difficulties - relocated from a service on the opposite side of town in February, he is ‘a different man’ according to senior support worker Danielle Garrigan.

“Mark was very keen to be living closer to his mum,” said Danielle. “His previous home was 20 miles away, whereas now she’s just around the corner, so that’s a big part of why he’s happier, but that’s not the only reason.

“We’ve given him a lot of personal support and he has settled in quickly at Sail Close, where he’s developing new skills including a much better understanding of how to manage his money.”

A young woman with mental health issues who has just moved into a new supported living service is so delighted with her home that she has written a poem about it.

Fairway, near Rochdale, is a much-needed new supported living service for women with learning disabilities and mental health needs. The six-bed newly-refurbished property caters for individuals from local authorities across Rochdale and Manchester.

Ceejae, 22, has written about how much she values the friendliness of the staff and her new house-mates, finishing her poem with “This place is a dream”. Her poem was also printed in the Regard newsletter.

Military heroes who competed in a world-first adaptive surf championship in North Wales say that surfing has helped them to overcome trauma, mental ill-health and serious physical injuries.

Sixteen surfers, all either serving military or veterans who have battled physical or mental injury, competed for the top spots in the Help for Heroes Adaptive Surf Championship last Saturday (23rd September 2017). The free-to-attend one-day tournament took place at inland surf lagoon Surf Snowdonia, seven miles from the sea at Conwy.

Winner of the open category, Yianni Karakousis, served as a Captain in the Royal Engineers. He suffered horrific injuries in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan in April 2013.

Mental health services across the nation have come under fire after a new report revealed that thousands of patients are being locked in secure wards.

The Care Quality Commission’s recent report revealed that as many as 3,500 patients are being held on secure wards, often miles away from their friends and family.

Inspectors raised concerns about the long-term rehabilitation of the patients, arguing that the long-stay wards in question were in danger of institutionalising patients rather than preparing them to return to an independent life.

The report also highlighted the “great variation” between wards that use physical restraint to manage challenging behaviour, and the CQC will be strengthening its assessment of this practice.

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